Squash: Stricken Nicol slumps to devastating defeat

By Richard Collins in Lahore

12:01AM GMT 17 Dec 2003

Peter Nicol, the Scottish-raised England international, fell victim to one of the biggest shocks in the sport's history when he became the first top seed to lose as early as the second round of the World Open yesterday.

Nicol had hoped to enter the record books in a different way, as the first Briton to win the title back. Instead, he was beaten in five excruciating games by Davide Bianchetti, the world No 35 from Italy, and by the stomach bug he acquired while preparing last week in Dubai.

After taking a two-game lead, Nicol began wandering between the rallies as if in a dream, stumbling and lurching during them as though he had had a bad night on the tiles, and alternating between harassed scrambling and desperate gambles with premature drops and volley drops.

Biachetti responded alertly to this, stepping forward, volleying more, increasing the pressure on the beleaguered favourite, and eventually playing very well. There was never a suggestion that he would choke on the unexpected fare which was landing on his plate.

"I knew from the third game onwards that I wasn't going to win," Nicol said after his 11-15, 12-15, 15-7, 15-4, 15-10 disaster. "I kept trying but I just wasn't able to do it.

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"My stomach problem hasn't cleared up and I felt weak. Before I went on I didn't realise how weak I was. It's a big disappointment but these things happen," he added, the words issuing from somewhere near the frontier of collapse. Nicol looked like a man not far from ending in hospital.

The match's turnaround happened quickly and bizarrely. One moment Bianchetti got a code violation warning for crashing his racket frustratedly against a wall after going two games down. The next Nicol was displaying fragility, arguing with the referee about let decisions, quite a rarity for him.

Then after he had somehow struggled back to a brief lead of 6-4 in the final game, a frightened tabby cat interrupted play by scuttling along the glass back wall.

"Catch the cat - you've got to get him," Bianchetti yelled with feverish humour in the heat of the moment, while Nicol stared at the errant feline as though it were an embodied spirit running away with his last chance of survival.

It may also have seen the loss of his No 1 ranking. John White, the Australian-raised Scottish international can climb above Nicol if he beat's Ireland's John Rooney today.

However, David Palmer, the defending champion from Australia who caused Malaysia's Mohammed Azlan to wreck his racket over a knee after a straight-games defeat, and Thierry Lincou, the Frenchman, also have chances to oust Nichol.